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Jaye Rodriguez of Melvindale opposes the permit changes for Severstal, but says that won't matter. 'They're going to do what they want to do,' she said. / Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press

To speak out on Severstal’s permit revision

The public comment period on Severstal Dearborn’s proposed emissions permit revision runs until March 19. Written comments can be addressed to Mary Ann Dolehanty, Permit Section Supervisor, MDEQ Air Quality Division, P.O. Box 30260, Lansing 48909-7760. Comments may also be submitted from the web page www.deq.state.mi.us/aps/cwerp.shtml (click on Submit Comment under the Severstal Dearborn Permit to Install No. 182-05C listing). On March 19, an informational session and a public hearing will be held in Rooms 122 and 126 at Henry Ford Community College, M-TEC, 3601 Schaefer Road, Dearborn. The informational session will begin at 6 p.m., at which time DEQ Air Quality Division staff will provide a brief introduction regarding the proposed project and will answer questions. The public hearing will begin at 7 p.m.

'The fallout here is every day,' said Patricia Guziak, a resident of Dora Street in Melvindale, near Severstal's plant and the Marathon oil refinery. 'It has ruined the paint on my car. In the summertime, I'm sweeping up black dust every day.' / Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press

Severstal Dearborn, a steel plant that’s one of metro Detroit’s biggest polluters, would be allowed to release much higher volumes of toxins into the atmosphere — in some cases, hundreds of times more — in a permit revision proposed by the state Department of Environmental Quality.

The changes, revising a 2006 emissions permit, would approve releasing more than 725 times more lead into the air from one portion of Severstal’s plant.

Permitted lead releases from other Severstal operations would also increase hundreds of times over, as would releases of the metal manganese.

Carbon monoxide emissions would be approved to more than double; allowed volatile organic compounds releases would rise sharply; and allowances for PM10 or fine dust emissions would rise between two and five times from the permitted levels eight years ago.

But DEQ and Severstal officials say it’s not an increase in pollutants — it’s what’s already been spewing from the plant for years.

Severstal’s 2006 emissions permit was based on data that was “limited, incomplete and, as the current emissions test data have revealed, not as representative of Severstal’s operations as anticipated,” the DEQ states in public documents seeking the permit revision.

“They had tested previously, but we questioned the validity of some of those results because their equipment was in disrepair,” said Vince Hellwig, chief of the DEQ’s Air Quality Division.

“The permit today is based on current testing, after the repairs have been made.”

For residents nearby, surrounded by refineries and heavy industry in one of Michigan’s most polluted areas — the 48217 ZIP code, where the area’s toxicity score from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is 45 times that of the statewide average — the proposed permit change and the missed pollution in 2006 aren’t welcome news.

“The fallout here is every day,” said Patricia Guziak, 58, a resident of Dora Street in Melvindale, less than a mile from Severstal’s plant and several others, including only being a few blocks from the large Marathon oil refinery.

“It has ruined the paint on my car. In the summertime, I’m sweeping up black dust every day. Dust is dust, but this is not normal. And the stink — you’ll get smells so bad you can’t sit on the porch.”

Just down the street, Jaye Rodriguez said her family has lived in the area for 10 years and, despite the nearby factories and pollution, they don’t regret it.

“We’ve got a good neighborhood,” she said.

Rodriguez opposes the permit changes for Severstal, but says that won’t matter.

“They’re going to do what they want to do,” she said. “They don’t care about how we feel.”

She’s correct on at least her first point.

“Citizens may object to it, but that’s not something we consider on whether to issue or deny the permit,” Hellwig said, adding that there would have to be a “major reason” to deny the permit change and in Severstal’s case, “there’s no imminent hazard there.”

Potential health hazards

All the pollutants that the permit would allow to rise are potentially harmful:

■ PM-10, or fine dust particles 10 microns or smaller, can affect breathing, damage lungs and cause cancer or premature death, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Elderly people, children and people with asthma, influenza or other respiratory disorders are most vulnerable.

■ Lead air pollution can harm every system in the body, particularly targeting the nervous system, according to the American Lung Association. It can cause permanent learning disabilities and diminished cognitive function in children that is irreversible. It can also lead to severe brain and kidney damage, premature death and is listed as cancer-causing by the EPA.

■ Chronic, long-term exposure to high levels of manganese by inhalation in humans may result in central nervous system effects, the EPA states.

■ Volatile organic compounds can cause problems ranging from eye, nose and throat irritation; headaches; loss of coordination and nausea; up to damage to the liver, kidney and central nervous system, according to the EPA. Some VOCs are known to cause cancer in humans.

■ Breathing carbon monoxide can cause headache, dizziness, vomiting and nausea. Exposure to moderate and high levels of the colorless, odorless gas over long periods has also been linked with increased risk of heart disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hellwig, however, said the levels emitted by Severstal are not a public health concern.

“Even at the levels proposed in the current permit, we did model to see if that was still protective of public health, and it is,” he said.

“We feel we have more than enough data that says it most definitely will hurt people’s health — especially when you have so much industry in one small area,” she said. “It’s about cumulative impacts.”

The circumstances show the problems associated with industries self-reporting their emissions, Anderson said.

“This permit, we feel, is a slap in the face of the people, because it is a major increase,” she said, adding that “DEQ should have noticed it a long time ago” that the emissions data upon which the 2006 permit was based were wrong.

Enforcement actions

Severstal is a Russian company and one of the world’s largest in the areas of mining and metals. It created Severstal Dearborn when it purchased the nearly century-old Rouge Steel plant at 4001 Miller Road out of bankruptcy in 2004. Severstal manufactures flat-rolled carbon steel products for the automotive and other industries.

The EPA considers the company a major source of air pollutants and has issued 36 informal enforcement actions to Severstal in the past five years and one formal enforcement action last year.

That came after a 90-day review of emissions from a Severstal smokestack in 2012 showed 1,660 violations of state and federal regulations for smoke opacity, a measure of particle levels in the smoke.

“Severstal recognizes that it purchased a plant that was challenged to meet its environmental goals, but accepted that challenge and invested significantly to improve the plant’s environmental performance,” said Severstal spokeswoman Katya Pruett.

The company has invested more than $1.6 billion into the Dearborn plant, including the installation of baghouses — pollution control devices that collect emissions and filter them through mesh bags to collect fine particles — on both its blast furnace, where iron ore is transformed to molten iron, and its basic oxygen furnace, where molten iron is processed and turned to steel, Pruett said.

The baghouses have meant “the capture and removal of about 3,000 tons of particulate matter per year, most of which had been previously emitted,” she said.

Though the DEQ is the state’s environmental regulator, it does not set allowable air pollution emissions levels, Hellwig said.

“The applicant comes in with an emission limit and we determine whether it’s protective of public health,” he said. “We do not establish the limit.”

Severstal’s proposed permit revision continues to meet state and federal air toxin requirements, “which are very stringent,” Hellwig said.

But the huge spike in allowed air pollutants “sounds horrible,” said Kimberly Hill Knott, policy director for the nonprofit Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice.

She noted the community near Severstal is in the notorious 48217 ZIP code, surrounded by refineries and heavy industries and highlighted in a 2010 Detroit Free Press investigation as the state’s most polluted ZIP code.

“We need more information to ensure this isn’t adding a further burden to what’s already the state’s most vulnerable population,” she said.

Anderson said the Severstal permit revision proposal makes her wonder how accurate the emissions records are from other factories in the area.